Sunday, 28 July 2013

Raspberry and gooseberry cake

Up until about an hour before making this cake it was going
to be a raspberry cake, but then I saw some irresistible purple gooseberries in
my local greengrocers and decided on adding them to the cake. It was a good decision even if the weight of
them did cause the fruit to sink a bit – maybe next time I’ll cut them in half.

Berries are one of the wonders of baking; they make every
cake they’re in a delight. I love the
way they add so much colour and flavour, but most of all I love the little
pockets of squidginess they add to the sponge.

The Chambord liqueur is an extravagance! It’s one of my favourite liqueurs as it’s so
fruity. I often find fruit liqueurs
taste more of raw alcohol than fruit but this one is delicious. It adds a fruity pep to the batter and I will
be using it in other baked goods – I’m thinking it would work well in
buttercreams, mousses and cheesecakes as it doesn’t have a harsh alcoholic
sting.

A beautiful cake deserves a beautiful mould and look at this
one! It’s the I Heart Cake mould from Mustard. They very kindly offered me one to try
out. If you cut it correctly (in
extremely pleasing large slices!) every slice is a heart...you are literally
offering someone your heart. Who knew
heart tasted so good?

But best of all – and to continue the theme of sharing the
love – Mustard offered me a second mould.
They will send a free I Heart Cake mould to the winner of my competition. The winner will be drawn at random on
Saturday 3 August and the closing date for entries is midnight on Friday 2
August. The competition is open to
anyone in the UK and to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment to this
post telling me who you would like to serve a slice of heart shaped cake to.

Ingredients

350g unsalted butter, at room temperature
350g golden caster sugar, plus 2 tablespoons extra for sprinkling on top
2 tablespoons Chambord liqueur – you can you any other liqueur or milk if you
don’t want any booze
6 eggs
350g self raising flour
300g raspberries
100g purple gooseberries – you can use any other berry or soft fruit

To serve: clotted cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/gas mark 5.

Use cake release spray in the silicon heart cake mould. If you are using a more standard tin then I
suggest a 23cm round springform tin – don’t use a 20cm one, this is a BIG cake!

Place the butter in a bowl and beat until soft.

Add the sugar and beat together until pale, light and
whippy.

Beat in the Chambord.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, if it looks like the mix
will curdle add some of the flour.

Stir in the flour.

Spoon a generous half of the batter into the prepared mould
and level the surface.

Scatter half the raspberries over the batter.

Cover with the remaining cake batter and level the surface.

Scatter over the remaining raspberries, along with the
gooseberries and gently press into the batter – don’t be too heavy handed, they
will naturally sink into the batter during baking.

Sprinkle the remaining golden caster sugar over the top.

Bake for 50 minutes before checking; if the edges are
browning quicker than the centre cover them with a strip of foil. Don’t be surprised if it takes comfortably over
an hour to bake. Mine took 1 hour 15
minutes. It’s done when a skewer
inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool for 30 minutes in the tin on a wire rack
before attempting to turn out – cakes with lots of berries are squishy and
tender from the oven.

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About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

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If so, please let me know and that cake could win a coveted CAFTA award. Email me your suggestions, with a photo of the cake if possible.

About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.